How much bigger can the sports bubble get?

Friday

Dec 13, 2013 at 6:28 PMDec 13, 2013 at 6:28 PM

I’m tempted to take a decade-long nap, and not for the obvious reason – it would be awesome. No, the purpose for prolonged slumber would be to awaken and see how major professional sports have developed, and the impact of evolution.

In the same week, Formula One announced it would double the points for season-ending races in an effort to give a sport defined by processional events some pizzazz and days later, Major League Baseball owners decided to ban one of the few things that make the game fun to watch – collisions at home plate. While the lack of two men crashing into each other, sans football pads, doesn’t fundamentally change baseball, it does remove one of the most exciting elements of it for safety’s sake. Changing the points structure in F1 does alter the way teams and drivers go about their business, even if for one day.

These two are just the latest alterations made to those silly little games we all love so much.

After the National Hockey League’s lockout – well, the second of three and fourth work stoppage overall – the sport came back with rules that opened up the ice in hopes to encourage more scoring. The two-line was made legal, goalie pad size was decreased, icing regulations were relaxed and, the one that nearly sent every purist into cardiac arrest, shootouts would decide games following a 4-on-4 overtime to all but eliminate tie scores.

NASCAR, frustrated by runaway championship battles in its premier series, engineered a playoff system – the Chase for the Championship – to manufacture drama in the autumn months. The top 10 drivers, as it would start out, were reset with their own points structure over the final 10 races. After two of the sport’s most popular drivers failed to make the playoffs one year, the field was expanded to 12, but even that didn’t satisfy the brass in Daytona Beach, Fla., so after a few years an entirely new points system was adopted. Last season, NASCAR added a 13th driver because of a Chase-fixing scandal.

The National Football League, America’s undisputed champion in terms of popularity for the last three decades, didn’t think enough touchdowns were being scored, so over time the defensive rules were tightened. Wide receivers, once mugged down the field, were now allowed to basically run free, while hits on the quarterback were limited to only when the field generals have the ball. More recently, the league has tried to legislate hitting out of the game due to bigger, faster, stronger players literally knocking the sense out of each other. This had made the defensive “strike zones” almost impossible to adhere to when what are essentially track stars are running full tilt in pads.

Plate collisions aside, baseball has expanded the number of teams in the playoffs, expanded interleague play into a full season thing with the hopes of getting more butts in seats and even made the ho-hum All-Star Game have an impact on the World Series.

The National Basketball Association hasn’t really changed things, aside from a dress code a few years ago, since the installation of the 3-point line in 1980. The distance of the arc has been tweaked since, as have some stricter defensive rules, but overall, the NBA has stayed relatively consistent over the years. So, good job guys.

Still, I have to wonder what I would wake up to in 2023.

Sports organizations seem intent on adding “excitement” to their games despite big television ratings and unprecedented fan interest, which have been crucial in securing untold billions of dollars in advertising. Americans love their favorite teams, games and events like previous generations never did, according to the numbers.

So why then are these institutions in such a panic to jazz up the product? The bubble.

The economic models are unsustainable in the current climate, which is why there have been so many lockouts and work stoppages in the past 20 years. Players unions drove the price up on owners, who in turn are scurrying to not just maintain a profit, but boost their income. If there’s even a hiccup in ratings or attendance, the only answer is to spice things up – even at the expense of the sport’s integrity. They all realize attending a professional sporting event – much less several – has become a pastime only for the upper middle class and up. Disposable income for the rest of society is usually a soda or candy bar, and there are a lot more of the low-income types than there are the wealthy, or these days even the financially comfortable.

If an entire generation can’t afford to attend a game, what will that do to the popularity of sports? If suddenly we aren’t tuning in because we no longer relate or are bored by it, a lot of ad money will dry up, quickly. How will a team ever afford a Robinson Cano at $24 million per year for 10 years?

The more I think about it, this column is a Part II to this one written in July: http://www.the-leader.com/article/20130723/SPORTS/130729944/0/SEARCH.

I can’t imagine what the desperate commissioners and presidents will do in the next 10 years just to cling to relevance. I know the last thing anyone in big-time pro sports is willing to do, and the only solution to deflate the bubble before it pops: Lower ticket prices.

Just sayin’: Just saw the movie trailer for “Godzilla” – it looks like someone finally got it right. ... Richard Childress is brining the iconic italicized No. 3 back to the Sprint Cup Series for the first time since February 2001. People, it’s time. ... Ernie Davis’ Heisman Trophy will be on display at the Arnot Mall tomorrow near the theater entrance. I’ve probably seen it a dozen times, but it never gets old.

Chris Gill, sports writer for The Leader, can be reached at cmgill@the-leader.com or follow him on Twitter @TheLeaderGill.

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